There is a considerable group of Iranians who are well-educated in Western culture, and who hate the regime, and above all who don’t want to be nuked. I would imagine that Israeli intelligence (even US intelligence, though they are not good at humint) find a fertile recruiting ground among these people. And many Iranians studied in the US over a 20 or 30-year period. So the present “detonation” campaign is probably due to a combination of local + exterior forces.
Oh, oh, my better half informs me that not only do I need new hearing aids, but also new glasses.
Correction to above post. It is Ziva David, not Diva.
Okay while we are wildly speculating about an unconfirmed thump……
Is it possible that that “stealth drone” which the crazies claim to have shot down was a trojan horse…..testing the Iranians….for a new version carrying an almost strategic payload?
Logic would indicate this stealth tech would produce something more than manned aircraft and drones….like a stealth cruise missile…..
Just sayin……
lol, sasquatch, it probably had something like this painted on the side: “Danger, no end-user serviceable parts inside. Do not open.”
in related news….
The US is sending thousands of troops to Israel…it just doesn’t say which side they’ll be ordered to help if things get ugly…and with ‘bama as CinC and the UN overpopulated with islamists, it’s not a given they’d assist Israel… http://yourjewishnews.com/14466.aspx
Israel is moving forward with plans to hold the largest-ever missile defense exercise in its history this coming spring amid Iranian efforts to obtain nuclear weapons.
Last week, Lt. Gen. Frank Gorenc, commander of the US’s Third Air Force based in Germany, visited Israel to finalize plans for the upcoming drill, expected to see the deployment of several thousand American soldiers in Israel.
The drill, which is unprecedented in its size, will include the establishment of US command posts in Israel and IDF command posts at EUCOM headquarters in Germany – with the ultimate goal of establishing joint task forces for the event of a future large-scale conflict in the Middle East.
The US will also bring its THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) and ship-based Aegis ballistic missile defense systems to Israel to simulate the interception of missile salvos against Israel. The American systems will work in conjunction with Israel’s missile defense systems – the Arrow, Patriot and Iron Dome.
Gorenc came to Israel for talks with Brig.-Gen. Doron Gavish, commander of
the Air Force’s Air Defense Division. He toured one of the Iron Dome batteries stationed in the South as well as the Israel Test Bed lab in Holon where the IAF holds its interception simulation exercises.
The IAF is planning to deploy a fourth batter of the Iron Dome counter rocket battery in the coming months and is mulling the possibility of stationing it in Haifa to protect oil refineries located there.
The Defense Ministry has allocated a budget to manufacture an additional three Iron Dome batteries by the end of 2012. IAF operational requirements call for the deployment of about a dozen batteries along Israel’s northern and southern borders.
The IAF is also moving forward with plans to deploy Rafael’s David’s Sling missile defense system, which is designed to defend against medium-range rockets and cruise missiles. Rafael recently completed a series of successful navigation and flight tests of the David’s Sling’s interceptor and plans are to hold the first interception test by mid-2012.
Sasquatch, here’s a remarkable coincidence fer ya: http://articles.latimes.com/2011/nov/16/business/la-fi-bunker-buster-bomb-20111117
“Boeing delivers first batch of 30,000-pound bombs to Air Force. … At a total cost of about $314 million, the military has developed and ordered 20 of the GPS-guided bombs, called Massive Ordnance Penetrators. They are designed to be dropped on targets by the Boeing-made B-52 Stratofortress long-range bomber or Northrop Grumman Corp.’s B-2 stealth bomber.”
Does Israel fly the B1B? I think they might.
At a total cost of about $314 million, the military has developed and ordered 20 of the GPS-guided bombs ????
that’s 15 million per bomb..somebody added a few zeros in the story…I hope…you can build a nuke for less.
during the first gulf war, scrap 8″ gun barrels were filled with explosives, had fins and a guidance unit bolted on and were literally dropped as ‘bunker busters’ before the filler had cooled off…and they worked…and were definitely cheaper by quite a few orders of magnitude.
also the link says ‘page not found’ not that I’d trust anything the la times said about the military anyway
Bemused, you should see how much air to air missiles cost. Its like shooting a Mercedes SL at the enemy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iKuMVqht4U
Thumbs up for Diva. Go Diva Go.
There is a considerable group of Iranians who are well-educated in Western culture, and who hate the regime, and above all who don’t want to be nuked. I would imagine that Israeli intelligence (even US intelligence, though they are not good at humint) find a fertile recruiting ground among these people. And many Iranians studied in the US over a 20 or 30-year period. So the present “detonation” campaign is probably due to a combination of local + exterior forces.
Oh, oh, my better half informs me that not only do I need new hearing aids, but also new glasses.
Correction to above post. It is Ziva David, not Diva.
Okay while we are wildly speculating about an unconfirmed thump……
Is it possible that that “stealth drone” which the crazies claim to have shot down was a trojan horse…..testing the Iranians….for a new version carrying an almost strategic payload?
Logic would indicate this stealth tech would produce something more than manned aircraft and drones….like a stealth cruise missile…..
Just sayin……
lol, sasquatch, it probably had something like this painted on the side: “Danger, no end-user serviceable parts inside. Do not open.”
in related news….
The US is sending thousands of troops to Israel…it just doesn’t say which side they’ll be ordered to help if things get ugly…and with ‘bama as CinC and the UN overpopulated with islamists, it’s not a given they’d assist Israel…
http://yourjewishnews.com/14466.aspx
Israel is moving forward with plans to hold the largest-ever missile defense exercise in its history this coming spring amid Iranian efforts to obtain nuclear weapons.
Last week, Lt. Gen. Frank Gorenc, commander of the US’s Third Air Force based in Germany, visited Israel to finalize plans for the upcoming drill, expected to see the deployment of several thousand American soldiers in Israel.
The drill, which is unprecedented in its size, will include the establishment of US command posts in Israel and IDF command posts at EUCOM headquarters in Germany – with the ultimate goal of establishing joint task forces for the event of a future large-scale conflict in the Middle East.
The US will also bring its THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) and ship-based Aegis ballistic missile defense systems to Israel to simulate the interception of missile salvos against Israel. The American systems will work in conjunction with Israel’s missile defense systems – the Arrow, Patriot and Iron Dome.
Gorenc came to Israel for talks with Brig.-Gen. Doron Gavish, commander of
the Air Force’s Air Defense Division. He toured one of the Iron Dome batteries stationed in the South as well as the Israel Test Bed lab in Holon where the IAF holds its interception simulation exercises.
The IAF is planning to deploy a fourth batter of the Iron Dome counter rocket battery in the coming months and is mulling the possibility of stationing it in Haifa to protect oil refineries located there.
The Defense Ministry has allocated a budget to manufacture an additional three Iron Dome batteries by the end of 2012. IAF operational requirements call for the deployment of about a dozen batteries along Israel’s northern and southern borders.
The IAF is also moving forward with plans to deploy Rafael’s David’s Sling missile defense system, which is designed to defend against medium-range rockets and cruise missiles. Rafael recently completed a series of successful navigation and flight tests of the David’s Sling’s interceptor and plans are to hold the first interception test by mid-2012.
Sasquatch, here’s a remarkable coincidence fer ya:
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/nov/16/business/la-fi-bunker-buster-bomb-20111117
“Boeing delivers first batch of 30,000-pound bombs to Air Force. … At a total cost of about $314 million, the military has developed and ordered 20 of the GPS-guided bombs, called Massive Ordnance Penetrators. They are designed to be dropped on targets by the Boeing-made B-52 Stratofortress long-range bomber or Northrop Grumman Corp.’s B-2 stealth bomber.”
Does Israel fly the B1B? I think they might.
At a total cost of about $314 million, the military has developed and ordered 20 of the GPS-guided bombs ????
that’s 15 million per bomb..somebody added a few zeros in the story…I hope…you can build a nuke for less.
during the first gulf war, scrap 8″ gun barrels were filled with explosives, had fins and a guidance unit bolted on and were literally dropped as ‘bunker busters’ before the filler had cooled off…and they worked…and were definitely cheaper by quite a few orders of magnitude.
also the link says ‘page not found’ not that I’d trust anything the la times said about the military anyway
Bemused, you should see how much air to air missiles cost. Its like shooting a Mercedes SL at the enemy.
Chem process engineers indeed- A missile full of VX nerotoxin is as deadly as a small nuke.
They probably call it “pesticide”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VX_(nerve_agent)